Some top-level athletes find their calling in high school.

Then there’s Monique Lance.

She spent her years at North Bend High School as a cheerleader and never imagined herself as a competitive athlete.

Now nearly 20 years out of high school and working as a marine biologist in Washington, she’s one of the top triathletes in the United States in her age group.

Lance just finished a trip to Germany for the International Triathlon Union World Championships, contested on Sept. 2, her 37th birthday. Now she’s preparing for the Half-Ironman World Championships in Florida in November.

In Germany, Lance finished sixth among Americans and 17th overall in her age group out of 84 athletes.

“It was amazing,” Lance said. “That’s the only word I can use to describe it. I’ve never experienced any kind of race like that, just the energy among the competitors or the energy among the fans.”

The event included a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10-kilometer run.

Lance finished in 2 hours, 30 minutes.

“My swim was slow,” she said. “The water was incredibly dark. It was probably the choppiest swim I’ve ever done.”

Lance typically is one of the stronger swimmers, but because the route went through several tunnels, the swimmers had to contend with waves on their right and left, which made breathing in a normal swimming motion difficult.

“As soon as I got out of the water and got on my bike, I got into rhythm and started passing people,” she said. “The run was the same thing. I felt good about my run.”

Lance had a great international experience on the run, keeping pace the entire way with a woman from Mexico.

“We never really spoke, but we were pulling each other along,” she said, adding the two shared a big hug after the race was finished. “You’re competing against everyone else, but there’s just this camaraderie.”

That concept was a big drawing factor when Lance first dabbled in the sport.

In 2000, she was doing step aerobics and got a stress fracture in her foot, so she started pool workouts for the first time. That’s where she met the people who shaped her competitive future.

“The masters swim group was a bunch of triathletes,” she said. “They said, ‘You should just compete.’”

So she did, entering a race without any experience.

“I rode my mountain bike and I’d never run two miles in my life,” she said. “I fell in love with it.”

She really fell in love with the people.

“I think triathletes have a common mindset — goal-setting people who like the outdoors,” she said.

Lance has kept her love of the outdoors in her work as a marine biologist for the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.

But her new love has added a side job, as triathlon training director at the Tacoma-Pierce County YMCA.

“I have been coaching it for four years,” she said. “When I first took it over, 10 people took the class. Now membership is up to 180. People all over Pierce County come to train with us.”

Lance has broadened her own abilities to include several half-ironmans, including one at Lake Stevens in Washington where she improved by 24 minutes from last year, completing the 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13-mile run in 5 hours and 8 minutes.

More recent in her life away from the triathlon training, Lance also has started a family.

She married Jim Waldorf a year ago, but kept her maiden name.

Her parents, Cliff and Adrienne Lance, still live in North Bend, where Cliff is an orthopedic physician’s assistant and Adrienne works in the high school library.

They have been surprised by their daughter’s success at the sport, and the switch in her personality on race days from the supportive role she had as a cheerleader in high school to the competitor.

“She is still one of the most supportive personalities,” Adrienne said. “I think that’s why she’s teaching triathlon training. The competitive edge is a new person that I have had to come familiar with. It’s an evolution.”

Adrienne marvels at the game face her daughter puts on before events.

“Cliff, my husband, compares it to a gladiator preparing for battle,” she said.

While Monique’s parents are surprised at the competitor she’s become, they were not surprised when she tried something completely new when she picked up the sport.

“Monique never ceases to amaze me,” Adrienne said. “Our kids, all three, pursue independent challenges. Nothing’s simple.”

Nicole Lane, Monique’s older sister, is a stay-at-home mom who does public relations work at night.

Gardner Lance, her brother, is a manager for Jeld-Wen Fiber Products in Iowa building garage doors, a switch from his original studies as an engineering major at Oregon State University.

As for Monique, she first showed some ability as a swimmer while growing up, though she turned down invitations to join the swim team.

“They tried to recruit her for the swimming team ... because she’s tall, lean and was an eel in the water,” Adrienne said.

Instead, Monique supported the athletes as a four-year cheerleader and was involved in the school’s modern dance program.

“The clue we had to her athletic prowess was that her senior year, she did three different numbers in the dance show, including a solo, and she choreographed a group dance for probably 12 other students,” Adrienne said.

Monique Lance earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree from Evergreen State College. She is sponsored in her triathlon endeavors by Fleet Feet Sports, a running store in Bonney Lake, Wash.

She qualified for the world championships by finishing 16th in her age group in the national championships at Henry Hagg Lake in Forest Grove in June with a time of 2:26:19. She had qualified for the national championships the past three years, but was unable to compete because of injuries.

While Lance competed among amateurs in the world championships, the three-day event also served as an important qualifier for the 2008 Summer Olympics for professionals and drew a total of 8,000 triathletes and about 300,000 spectators.